I've managed to get hold of a working powerbook G4, however, the screen is smashed, the HD is dead and the case is actually bent into a curve! I was thinking, rather than buy another old Powerbook and swapping around the parts, could I not just fit the logic board into an old PC case I have lying around and hook up the external video? I've not tried anything this major before but I thought it must be possible. Has anybody else tried this? The only problem i can see is hooking up the power supply...

Thanks, i thought it should work. I've also got an old 15" G4/400 Powerbook where the screen works. The Powerbook I first mentioned is a 12' 867. I guess it may actually be easier to try and fit that in that case rather than modding the powersupply to fit the ATX case?

The 12" mother board will not be able to use the LCD from the 15". If the 15 works I would keep it as is and go for the case mod in your first post. Use the ATX power supply for the HD and optical drives as normal and just mount the little dc jack from the 12" PB on the back of the PC case, and use the original laptop adaptor to power the mother board. You could use a firewire bridge to hook up drives or extend the power books own ata bus with some adaptors. Even with the power issue it wont be hard.

ive actually just managed to get a new screen off ebay for £65 inc postage! with any luck this will solve the cracked screen problem and i'll just have to bend the case back into shape. anybody know of any good 'how to replace you 12' powerbooks screen pages'?

Manuals for PowerBooks always want you to take the whole display off. Thats a real pain on the 12". And unnecessary on all of them. If you are careful, you can undo the two hex screws in the bottom corners of the display, and open the display up and swap the panels without having to undo the bottom half.You want a paint scraper or something to open the display. The plastic purpose-made tools that Apple provides are utterly useless.

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